New Facebook’s terms of Fan Subscriptions enrage artists

Facebook is about to update the terms of use for its creative Fan Subscription service, one of Patreon’s main competitors. The potential percentage of fees and licensing rules caused a storm of negativity in the digital art community.

Announced in March 2018 and implemented as Patreon's main competitor, Fan Subscriptions was originally a limited service that allowed artists to provide fans with exclusive access to their content for a monthly subscription of $4.99.

Earlier this week, Facebook started inviting new subscribers to Fan Subscription, which drew a large reaction from disgruntled creators. Under the new terms of service, Facebook will reduce subscription fees by 30%. At this time, the change has not taken effect.

Content licensing has become another sticky issue. Facebook asks artists to transfer a non-exclusive, sub-licensable and transferred license to their work, which will remain under Facebook, even if they stop using the service.

The Fan Subscriptions page on Facebook recommends the creators to join now (although you can still only start working by Facebook invitation).

The fact that Facebook has ownership of the uploaded user-generated content is not new, but the idea of a free license that would allow the social network to use images the way it wants is of concern to artists. However, there are ways to complete a license: delete the content or associated account.

The announcement was met with an aggressive response from artists. Matt Saincome, the founder of the satirical news site The Hard Times, and Rob DenBleyke, creator of the popular web-comics Cyanide & Happiness, expressed their displeasure on Twitter.

The 30% cut to the subscription fee has not yet been applied, but is actually not such a low cost. For example, the real-time streaming video platform Twitch has reduced their subscription fee by 50%. Patreon, however, only accepts 5% of its users' earnings.

If Facebook decides to cut the fees, artists will be notified 30 days in advance. A complete list of terms and conditions is currently available only to those who have been invited to join Fan Subscription. In addition, the new documentation states that Facebook may offer "discounts or free trial versions to fans from time to time at our discretion". While these discounts may be beneficial to those who buy, they may also cause losses to those who sell.